The present invention relates to an auxiliary blower adapted for attachment to a lawn mower and which serves the purpose of directing clippings from the mower to a bag or other type of receptacle. More specifically, the present invention relates to a quick attach and detach mounting arrangement which mounts the blower on the side of the mower deck.
It is well known to provide lawn mowers with clipping collectors including duct work which leads from the mower to the receptacle. Normally, the mower is mounted on the underside of a tractor, the receptacle is mounted on the rear of the tractor and the duct work extends from a side of the mower upwardly and rearwardly for discharge into the upper end of the receptacle. It is also common, in many mowers, to not have the receptacle and duct work and consequently, deflector panels are used on the outboard side of the mower for reflecting the mower clippings onto the ground. Often, this latter type of mower is of the larger size, having three or more cutting blades, so that it generates such a quantity of clippings that the blades themselves cannot impel or blow the clippings through the duct work to a receptacle. Such a mower may utilize an auxiliary blower that is mounted on the side of the mower deck and which receives the clippings and impels or blows them upwardly into the receptacle. Such an arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,249 which issued to Tacket on Mar. 18, 1980. Another system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,398 which issued to Aumann et al on June 20, 1978.
The auxiliary blower arrangement described in the aforementioned patents creates a basic problem of how to mount and dismount the auxiliary blowers on the mower deck. Often, it is desirable, even when an auxiliary blower is available, to completely remove the blower and the receptacle from the tractor and to permit the grass clippings to move onto the ground. Such a time may occur in the latter part of the summer when grass clippings are not extremely heavy or long and it is preferable to place them back on the ground rather than to collect them and have the problem of discarding the clippings. Therefore, a problem does exist by having the auxiliary blower mounted rigidly with the mower deck unless it can be quickly removed from and mounted on the mower deck. Consequently, this takes considerable structure and attaching means which is not only costly but creates a problem of time when it is desired to mount or dismount the auxiliary blower.